S2E12: Still More Tragic Tales... and the 1920 World Series

Okay.

Carl Mays was prickly.

And Carl Mays was unpopular, even before the Chapman tragedy.

However, he was an excellent pitcher, and he won over 200 games with a career ERA below three.

And not a whole lot of pitchers who pitched the bulk of their careers between 1920 and 1940 can say that.

Is he Hall of Fame quality?

To me, he's borderline quality.

There are worse Hall of Fame pitchers, for absolutely sure.

And he is one of the better pitchers not in the Hall.

But you're just looking at his career.

I mean, he had great numbers.

He won 20 games five times.

He topped 25 twice.

And his best season was maybe 1921 when he went 27-9 with a league-leading 336.2 innings, anchoring the staff for the Yankees as they went to their first World Series.

I mean those are pretty spectacular numbers, especially just one year after Killing someone.

Let's not forget.

You have

to live with that,

right? And there was also this, though, about Carl Mays.

This is a quote from his Sabre bio.

Perhaps the most disliked player of his era, Mays was once described by FC Lane as a strange, cynical figure who aroused more ill will, more positive resentment than any other ball player on record.

A noted headhunter even before the Chapman beaning, Mays refused to apologize for how he pitched.

Any pitcher who permits a hitter to dig in on him is asking for trouble, he once said.

I never deliberately tried to hit anyone in my life.

I throw close just to keep the hitters loose up there.